Eula Biss wrote “The Pain Scale,” utilizing elements such as mathematics, Dante’s Inferno, her personal experience, and different scales. Her piece is so convoluted with ideas that it creates a strange mixture that reads as an objective piece. This is strange given that pain is subjective.
Biss’ essay repeats the idea of the number zero being different from the rest of the numbers. She says “Zero is not a number...It does not add, subtract or multiply like other numbers.” She then goes off to state that “Aristotle did not believe in zero.” This is surprising, as Aristotle is considered one of the most influential physicists. She also says zero in a mathematical proof can equal to one. Thus, it leads one to believe she is questioning the use of such forms of categorization. Basically, she is stating that these items are human made, and not a concrete “law.” She furthers this idea by informing the reader that years ago surgery was performed on babies without pain medication. This was done because it was believed babies did not have “fully developed nervous systems necessary to feel pain.” This idea that used to be a fact is now known to be completely false.
Biss’ continual use of science and scales demonstrates her need to make pain objective. Biss mentions the definition of pain that the International Association of the Study of Pain conjured. She did this in order to limit the idea of pain. She furthers the idea of objectivity by comparing the pain scale to the Beaufort scale of wind power. The scale offers not just a number, but a term for the wind speed and a brief description. This is something that she references throughout her essay in order to make sense of her own pain.
Never does the reader understand the specifics of Biss’ pain. She states that there are “…No marks. No swelling. No terrible tumor... There was nothing to illustrate my pain…” She then discusses different types of pain. For example, she states “the longer the pain persisted, and the harder it became for me to imagine what it was like not to be in pain, the more seriously I considered the disturbing possibility that I was not, in fact, in pain.” She states that 50% of Americans claim to be in pain. This surprises her, and makes her question her own pain. Biss’ seems to push the idea that pain could be a confabulation of the mind.
I really like this point that you made:
ReplyDeleteBasically, she is stating that these items are human made, and not a concrete “law.” She furthers this idea by informing the reader that years ago surgery was performed on babies without pain medication. This was done because it was believed babies did not have “fully developed nervous systems necessary to feel pain.” This idea that used to be a fact is now known to be completely false.